Ex-Russian PM Poisoned

Sky News ^ | November 30, 2006 | Staff

[popdonnelly]

"Stalin was more subtle than Putin"

With regard to assassinations, maybe. Starving the Ukraine, the purges, the Gulag, and pillaging Eastern Europe weren't exactly subtle.

[Red Badger]

Note to self: Do not accept dinner invitations from the Russian embassy.............

[leilani]

I'm sharing your skepticism. Looks more like an attempt to frame Putin.

Not that there's anything wrong with that! ;-)

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

What of Moose and skwer-ell?

[GOP_1900AD]

My guess: Short half life nervous system disruptor, ala Sarin (but in a non gasous form, at least initially, probably activated by HCl). That would explain why they cannot find it in his system now - it's long gone. It was probably in a microcaplet, inserted into his food. Looks like they did not put enough in there to achieve lethality. Maybe experimentation using something quite new.

[ReignOfError]

I'm sharing your skepticism. Looks more like an attempt to frame Putin.

I can't rule out a concerted and planned effort, but there's no need to go there. Russia has a lot of people trained in the use of poisons, and a lot of them have (or can be hired by people who have) people they'd like to be rid of. Without any coordination, without any central planning, they could be acting independently while the proverbial iron is obviously hot. I don't think there's a widespread opportunity, just a lot of opportunists using the Putin fog to cover their escapes.

If I had someone I wanted to kill, and I happened to be around during the Mob wars in '30s Chicago, or the Weathermen terror campaign in the '60s, gang wars in '80s LA, etc. all I have to do is make my hit look like one of those, and then walk away undetected. I suspect that a lot of Russian scores are being settled among Russians right now because suspicion of Putin has provided a convenient umbrella.

Not that there's anything wrong with that! ;-)

Oh, Putin has plenty of his own sins to answer for, and my concern about his being blamed for the sins of others isn't because of concern for Putin; it's because I worry that other folks, just as willing to kill, will walk away lily-white and untarnished, only to pop up later.

[headsonpikes]

"It's nothing personal - it's just business."

[leilani]

Good points, you're could well be very right! Whatever the plot, it's more likely to be a lot more byzantine than first glance from any angle. This is Russia, after all.

[Mrs Ivan]

I beat you too it;

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1746304/posts

[JasonC]

Everyone evil is stupid, in spades. And this is exactly the sort of stupid thing they do telling themselves they are oh so clever and getting away with it, etc.

[ReignOfError]

Everyone evil is stupid, in spades.

Yeah, and they can never shoot straight and always wear black hats. You watch too many movies.

[JasonC]

No, they were every kind of hat and many shoot as straight as you please, though some spray and pray like idiots too. But if the only thing a man can think to do with other human beings is murder them or worse, then that man is an idiot all the way down. And look around the parts of the world run by evil men for centuries. You will see a collection of ruins, graveyards, poverty, continual chaos, and the life of man, solitary poor nasty brutish and short. And not because genuises have been there running things.

[RusIvan]

Yegor Gaidar is being treated in a Moscow hospital after becoming ill on a trip to Ireland a week ago. ==

Seems like the trips to the West become dangerous.

[ReignOfError]

But if the only thing a man can think to do with other human beings is murder them or worse, then that man is an idiot all the way down.

That's not just incorrect, but dangerous thinking, because it makes it too easy to underestimate the enemy. Germany and Italy in the '30s were fine places for the citizens who weren't being murdered, with thriving economies and military innovations far beyond the rest of Europe. Osama is clearly evil, but he's been shrewd enough to organize attacks all over the world and elude capture.

And even in countries with evil leaders and great human suffering, the leaders manage to keep themselves in power and their cronies in luxury. Their people suffer not because the leaders are too dumb to figure it out, but because they don't care.

It is necessary to recognize both evil and ineptitude in leaders, but it's dangerous to assume they go hand-in-hand. That makes it too easy to blow off the threat posed by a 7-foot-tall madman who defends a 14th-century version of theology and lives in a cave.

[JasonC]

The leaders don't care because they are too stupid to figure out that caring costs them nothing and gains them plenty. The psychological mistake involved in expecting power to flow from the embrace of evil is the leading cause of both stupid policy and evil action among political leaders throughout history. That it is a mistake is one of the best attested facts of history. It is frankly a piece of superstition - the violence done to one's own psyche is experienced as a source of outward power when it has exactly the opposite effect. As an illusion it thrives on cowardice wherever that is widespread, and is based on the opinion that virtually all human beings are cowards. Which is not remotely the case.

The "evil stupids" I call them. Saddam standing stock-still to be invaded is the evil stupids. Stalin thinking he'd raise agricultural output by murdering the peasantry was the evil stupids. Hitler thinking the western democracies were weak and corrupt because they had shreds of decency was the evil stupids. It is no exaggeration to say the evil stupids drive world history. What they don't do is drive the evil and stupid to any lasting accomplishment. They are all dust and ashes and so is everything they touch. They were all and are all, profoundly stupid, all the way down.